Flight NY449
by Autumn Win-Dow
Summary: [Three-story prologues.] The strange encounters during non-stop flight NY449, from Tokyo to New York. Throw in some troublesome flight attendants and unlucky passengers, and you've got yourself a flight to remember. Prologue 3: Autopilot. Despite meeting each other at occasional times, it was only that moment when they had a legitimate conversation.
1. 1: Schadenfreude

_**Schadenfreude**_

**By Autumn Win-Dow**

(AoGA House Cup. Words: 554)

* * *

Koko was seated at the very back of the plane, as the only occupant in his row. With his headphones on, he blankly watched the action movie playing in the inbuilt screen in front of him while munching on some peanuts. He remained indifferent to the slight turbulence of the plane, as he was silently cheering for the protagonist, engaging in a suspenseful final fight with the terror-inducing bad guy.

"Sir, what would you like?"

Immensely drawn in by the antagonist's grip hold of the main character's neck, his chewing slowed, and he started to unconsciously lean forward, closer to the screen.

"Excuse me, sir?"

His hold on his packet of peanuts tightened as the two characters exchanged words of hate, before the protagonist turned the tables in the bloody battle.

"I'm talking to you, so answer!"

The sound of a woman's enraged screech jerked him out of the suspense of the movie, and he turned to meet the eyes of a green haired flight attendant.

An annoyed green haired flight attendant.

A beautiful and annoyed green haired flight attendant.

If he told himself that his heart didn't skip a beat from the sight of her, he would be lying to himself.

Koko immediately pulled off his earphones and replied, "…Yes?"

The woman clicked her tongue in irritation before sighing, and placing her hands on her hips.

"Hey, wait a moment." Koko drawled, slightly offended by her rude reaction. "What's with the attitude?"

"You're the one too drawn into your action movie that you've lost complete sense of your surroundings." She retorted as she glared down at him.

"I'm sorry, but don't you think it's rude to mistreat a passenger…" He took the opportunity to glance at her name tag. "…Sumire?"

"Who gave you permission to call me by my first name?!" Sumire hissed, but despite that Koko was amused by the whole ordeal.

He never knew that he was such a sadist. Koko considered it as a funny case of airborne Schadenfreude.

"Well… your nametag, for one. What other purpose does it serve than to tell us passengers your name?"

She lifted up a finger in order to lecture him, but was immediately stopped by another flight attendant – a shorter brunette with a glass of orange juice in her hand.

"Permy, calm down! You might wake up the other passengers!" She warned Sumire, unaware that many of the passengers were already awake and irritated from her yelling.

Sumire noticed the interruptions she had unintentionally caused, and her expression immediately changed from irritated to regretful. She turned on her heel to face the passengers seated in economy class, and she made a ninety degree bow.

"I'm sorry for the disturbance. It won't happen again." She promised, with her head down.

Koko couldn't help but snicker at her misfortune. He happened to find her embarrassment amusing to witness, even when he had just met her on the same day.

After the passengers started to focus their attention on things and people other than Sumire, she immediately stood up straight and sent a glower at Koko, as she flipped a curly strand of hair over a shoulder.

"…so Permy is your nickname?"

Koko was in such a good mood that he didn't report the fact that a flight attendant had hit him in the head.

* * *

**_A/N: This is just a random drabble collection of airplane encounters. Ugh, it's really incoherent._**


	2. 2: Bothersome Acquaintances

_**Bothersome Acquaintances - Part One**_

**By Autumn Win-Dow**

(AoGA House Cup. Words: 764)

* * *

Ruka was on the verge of falling asleep in his economy class seat when he felt a sudden cold sensation slap him in the face and his chest.

He jolted wide awake as looked down at his white shirt, stained with a vivid orange patch. He could smell the juice as dripped down his face, and he was already feeling his skin become sticky.

"Oh no! I'm so sorry, sir!" The culprit – a brunette flight attendant – panicked as she hastily grabbed some serviettes from her cart and started to wipe the juice off his face.

Ruka was never someone who liked to be belittled in the way she was treating him, but he let the matter go for the sake of her sanity and his face.

He grabbed a handful of the serviettes from her hands and wiped the juice from his own face before dabbing them on his wet shirt, in an attempt to absorb as much of the liquid as possible.

"I'm very sorry, sir!" The flight attendant repeated, as she bowed as low as she could. "I've spilt some on your seat, as well."

Ruka sat up from his chair – a part of him thankful that he wasn't wearing his seatbelt at the time – and saw a large patch of orange on the seat.

_Damn it, _he thought to himself, _am I supposed to sit in discomfort for ten more hours?!_

"Please excuse me. I'll see what I can do." She hurriedly promised, before darting off towards the front of the place.

The blonde could only sigh at his misfortune.

"Tough day," The passenger next to him spoke, amused, "for both you and the flight attendants on this plane."

"…I guess you could say that." Ruka breathed as he threw the used tissues on the wet seat, deciding that wiping his shirt wasn't going to make a difference in regards to his discomfort.

"It's the second time a flight attendant's apologised to us today. Not exactly an ideal flight." The man – of whom had a strange star-shaped tattoo beneath his eye – said, as he leaned his head far back into his seat.

Ruka was aware of what his neighbour was referring to. He had also seen the pointless argument between a green-haired flight attendant and a passenger in one of the furthest seats, which was mainly fuelled by the attendant in question.

"I couldn't agree with you more. But it'll only be for a few more hours." Ruka decided that his optimism was necessary in regards to thinking about his situation.

After a brief silence, the stranger held out a hand. "Tsubasa Andou."

Ruka raised his own hand to shake, but realised that it was a bad idea, considering that his hand was sticky from the juice. Instead, he dropped his hand and sighed in slight embarrassment his name. "Ruka Nogi."

A part of him was glad that he had finally acquainted himself with someone who didn't look like he was going to make his trip even worse than it already was.

However, his hope had immediately been squashed because of the next words Tsubasa spoke.

"…that flight attendant was gorgeous, though, despite being a klutz. Don't you reckon?"

In terms of the topic of females, Ruka felt awkward. It wasn't exactly a conversation starter which he felt comfortable with – he lacked the confidence which other males had when talking about the opposite sex, and he found it embarrassing.

"…I guess…" He forced out, trying to look natural.

When he thought back about the flight attendant, Ruka eventually did admit – although to himself – that she really was a pretty creature. His love for animals had somehow altered his vocabulary, and he would often use the word 'creature' over human when he thought to himself, but at that moment, he felt guilty about doing so.

"You're blushing!" Tsubasa exclaimed, although not loud enough to alert the rest of the passengers.

Right on queue, the attendant returned with a relieved smile on her face.

"Sir, I've organised a seat for you in business class, since there's only one remaining seat available. Please follow me."

Ruka immediately grabbed his bag from under his seat and sent an annoyed stare at Tsubasa, who only smiled in amusement. He followed the brunette attendant towards the front of the plane.

Never did he expect that all thought of attraction regarding the woman in front of him would be immediately thrown out of the window, because of a second encounter which would change his life.


	3. 2-5: Crosswords

_**2.5 - Crosswords**_

**by Autumn Win-Dow**

(AoGA House Cup. Words: 752)

* * *

Ruka was quickly escorted to business class, where the loudest conversations were simply murmurs – much quieter than economy. A part of him was thankful that the attendant had spilt juice on his shirt, because in these circumstances, he would finally be able to get some sleep without a single interruption.

Or so he thought.

The flight attendant suddenly halted in her step, causing him to stagger back slightly. He saw that they had arrived at his new seat, which was one of two next to a window. His new neighbour looked up from her newspaper – presumably in order to understand what was going on next to her – and Ruka felt a slight shiver down his spine when their eyes met.

He could easily read her dark violet eyes – he could tell that she wasn't pleased with the interruption.

"This is your new seat, sir. I'm really sorry about the inconvenience." The attendant signalled to the empty seat, before leaving in a hurry.

Dazed, he stood in the aisle, unsure about what exactly to do – especially with the intimidating woman next to him, who had already turned back to her newspaper. As if he was handling a dangerous animal, Ruka moved and sat on the much wider chair, just before pushing his bag underneath his seat.

He didn't even know why he was nervous while he sat next to the woman with the piercing stare, and he kept telling himself to relax.

Ruka had already confirmed to himself that sleeping was no longer an option.

As he pulled out the headphones wrapped in plastic from the pouch in front of him, he briefly glanced at the newspaper she was analysing.

The blonde man had expected it to be some lengthy article about something which he wouldn't have the knowledge to comprehend, but he was surprised to find that her analytical stare was directed at a crossword.

The headphones in his hand were long forgotten, as he noticed that she was stuck on one particular word. It was a word starting with m, and was the term for an abnormally enlarged oesophagus.

Coincidentally, it was a word which he knew all too well.

"Megaesophagus." Ruka blurted out unintentionally.

The woman raised her head and stared at him, as she arched her eyebrow. He slowly pointed to the newspaper in her hand and repeated what he said.

After a brief silence, she finally spoke to him. "…How do I know you're not making things up? It's pretty much the word 'mega' hitched onto 'oesophagus'. You could have made it up."

Ruka couldn't help but sigh at her suspicion. "I'm a veterinarian. I'm quite well acquainted with terms such as these."

In the end, she surrendered, and quickly filled the gaps upon his recommendation. Ruka could tell that she wasn't a bad person – it was just that she wasn't very communicative, and she had quite a pride.

Because of that, he didn't find her as intimidating.

"Did you vomit on your shirt?" She suddenly asked him, "Because it looks like you were feeding chocolate to an orang-utan."

"E-Eh?" Ruka stuttered before looking down at his shirt in confusion.

…_Oh._

"A flight attendant spilled orange juice on both me and my seat. That's why I moved to this seat." He explained – feeling embarrassed at the thought of the juice dripping on his face.

"I see." She spoke before flipping the page of her newspaper, only to find more crosswords to spend her time with.

And with more crosswords, she was annoyed to find more medical terms.

"Do you want me to help you with those?" Ruka offered with a sheepish grin. "It'll keep us both busy for the rest of the trip."

The black haired woman looked at him before sighing for the second time during their encounter. "Fine. Only because I don't find you annoying… for now."

Ruka was thrilled inside. He was glad that he had somehow acquainted himself with this strange woman, and he knew that his trip wasn't going to be so bad and boring anymore. Also, he could also get to know her. It was why he held out his now clean hand towards her – like how Tsubasa had done a while ago – as a form of official introduction.

"Ruka Nogi."

However, unlike the previous situation, she looked at his hand for a brief moment before reluctantly shaking his hand and telling him her own name.

"Imai. Hotaru Imai."

* * *

_**A/N: Another update today, since the previous drabble was a part one. **_


	4. 3: Autopilot

_**Autopilot**_

**by Autumn Win-Dow**

(AoGA House Cup. Words: 667)

* * *

As soon as she was out of the blonde passenger's sight, Mikan let out a long-held sigh as she felt the heat rise to her cheeks. She was quite embarrassed at the fact that she had clumsily spilt orange juice on his shirt and his seat, and had to move him to the last available seat on the plane. When she had notified Misaki about her incident, she was quickly scolded before being shooed off to take care of the mess – both the literal and metaphorical messes.

Miklan swiftly slid into the small kitchen compartment and leaned her hands on the small bench. She was relieved that lunch had already been distributed to the passengers, so she wasn't bothering the other staff any more than she already had.

"Oh, it's you."

She slowly turned her head to face the plane's pilot, and noticed the shadows underneath his crimson eyes. He had also entered the kitchen compartment, and stared at her as he sipped from his hot cup of coffee.

"Aren't you supposed to be… you know… flying the plane?" She asked him in an unsure tone, feeling slightly dazed from the sudden occurrences.

"It's called autopilot. Of course I can't fly the plane for more than ten hours straight." He replied with a scoff, before reaching out past her for a small drawer.

Mikan immediately tried to shuffle back to allow him some room, but within a split second her back had already made contact with the other wall, due to the narrow space of the kitchen compartment.

The close proximity which suddenly came between them made her feel uncomfortable and rigid. She felt her back press further into the wall as he reached over and pulled open the drawer to retrieve a packet of peanuts. Mikan quietly exhaled when he pulled back, but she still felt tense because he still hadn't left – instead placing his cup of coffee on the narrow bench and opening his packet of peanuts.

"What kind of trouble did you create for the passengers today?" He asked her out of the blue before popping a few nuts in his mouth.

Mikan felt offended by his question, as she huffed and rolled her eyes at him. "That's not really a nice question to ask to someone you just met."

"I've met you more than once. So your accusation is pretty much invalid." He instantly retorted.

"We've only greeted each other, if you could actually call that a 'greet'. We don't even know each other's names." Mikan explained as-a-matter-of-factly.

It was true that she had been an attendant for a handful of flights where he was the pilot, but they had never exchanged words except for awkward 'good mornings'. It was only that moment when they had a legitimate conversation – even though it was central about the fact that they never had conversations previously.

"You're Mikan Sakura." He suddenly proved her wrong.

Mikan couldn't help but feel honoured by the fact that a pilot knew her name, even though she hadn't even hinted on telling him. She didn't even know his name, even though it was a much more likely scenario to what the current situation was.

It was that point when he continued to talk, while completely dampening her spirits. "You're famous for being clumsy, even among the pilots."

He quickly grabbed his coffee from the bench and left the compartment, towards the cockpit, before she could reprimand him any further.

Only to be quickly replaced by Sumire.

"Huh? Were you talking to Natsume Hyuuga?" The green haired attendant asked her, with a hint of annoyance in her tone – which Mikan guessed was because of possible jealousy, since she wasn't slow enough to not realise that the pilot was quite a good looking man.

_Natsume Hyuuga… _Mikan thought to herself, hoping to herself that even though it was their first conversation, it would already be their last.

But a guilty part of her was reassured by the fact that she finally knew this man's name.

* * *

**_A/N: That's the last drabble I'm writing for this fic. And yes, I'm pulling an EXO and making a fic compilation a set of prologues. I'm considering continuing the story of one of these drabbles (2 and 2.5 are a set, since they're linked to the HotaruxRuka story). Any recommendations for which one?_**


End file.
